Fibro Coast

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BACKGROUND: In the era before motels and resorts, fibro holiday homes by the beach were important places of leisure, and their simplicity and informality shaped the way that generations experienced their time by the beach. This work began as part of the Gold Coast City Gallery's 2014 collaborative Fibro Coast exhibition project, that explored the artistic, cultural and design story of the humble fibro beach homes of the from the 1920's to the present, but has now been extended into a discrete photo-documentary project. CONTRIBUTION: Fibro shacks are a rare example of a uniquely Australian architectural vernacular and face an uncertain future as development interests inevitably win out over heritage. Informed initially through interdisciplinary dialogue (with historians, residents, architects, curators & writers) this work builds on the stories of custodians and local histories of humble fibro shacks (exhibited as earlier projects All But Three Christmases and See Change). The discrete Fibro Coast project takes the homes themselves as the main characters and, through the development of a visual langauge that emphasised the minimalism and informality of the spaces, provides a lens through which contemporary issues affecting these communities, such as tensions arising from the process of gentrification and the arrival of populations of 'sea-changers', can be discussed SIGNIFICANCE: Fibro Coast was curated into the Cast By The Sun exhibition project by Professor Jay Younger and Byron Wolfe with a cataogue including essays by Donal Fitzpatrick and Stephanie Rogers (https://issuu.com/qcagriffith/docs/cast_by_the_sun?e=3092855/14437363#search). In addition, the work was selected for a solo exhibition at the Pingyao Photography Festival, finalist in the Josephine Ulrick Photography Award and received a Merit Award at the Moreton Bay Art Awards. It was also selected by the Queensland Centre for Photography for Photo LA and Photo Contemporary.